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knowledge

LESSON

Lesson Learned: Strengthening Democracy Through LGBT Political Participation in South Africa

In-person training conducted through a series of shorter sessions over a period of several months, rather than one training condensed into a short period of time, can improve learning and support the building of connections and networks between participants, which is important to recognize and leverage.
Project Partner
Triangle Project
Project Description
The project aims to strengthen South Africa's democracy through increasing equal participation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex people and promoting understanding among political parties and the Independent Electoral Commission around the importance of diverse representation. This will be achieved through the training of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex leaders in civic engagement strategy and working with parties and the Commission to adopt policies and procedures to improve their representation, participation, voter registration and turn out.
Evaluation Date
August 2023
Theme
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Strengthening Grassroots Women’s Groups to Promote and Protect Civic Space in Uganda

It is incorrect to just assume that what people learn from training will then be applied in practice. There is another step in supporting them to feel confident to start believing and acting on what they now know and this needs to be better captured in project designs, such as through sub-granted small projects, to ensure that outputs contribute to the achievement of outcomes.
Project Partner
All in One Womens Association
Project Description
The project goal is to empower 6,000 women by raising awareness of their gender specific rights, promoting women’s political participation, and addressing all forms of injustices that affect women’s wellbeing; strengthen the capacity of 100 unregistered women’s groups to become registered under the NGOs Act 2016; and support 100 registered women’s groups in advocating, promoting and protecting civic space in Uganda. Project activities will incorporate actions in response to the Covid-19 crisis, as it impacts women, including gender-based violence as well as social and economic pressures.
Evaluation Date
July 2023
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Strengthening Grassroots Women’s Groups to Promote and Protect Civic Space in Uganda

For training to resonate and be most impactful, they need to be delivered in a setting and format that appeals to participants. Ensuring that they are conducted in the language participants are most familiar with and in an interactive and engaging format can aid with comprehension and ultimately impact.
Project Partner
All in One Womens Association
Project Description
The project goal is to empower 6,000 women by raising awareness of their gender specific rights, promoting women’s political participation, and addressing all forms of injustices that affect women’s wellbeing; strengthen the capacity of 100 unregistered women’s groups to become registered under the NGOs Act 2016; and support 100 registered women’s groups in advocating, promoting and protecting civic space in Uganda. Project activities will incorporate actions in response to the Covid-19 crisis, as it impacts women, including gender-based violence as well as social and economic pressures.
Evaluation Date
July 2023
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Strengthening Grassroots Women’s Groups to Promote and Protect Civic Space in Uganda

It is vital to document and present evidence of how a project meets target indicators in the delivery of its activities both for internal learning but also to be able to demonstrate effectiveness and impact in a robust and comprehensive way. This requires a dedicated person in charge of monitoring, evaluating, and learning.
Project Partner
All in One Womens Association
Project Description
The project goal is to empower 6,000 women by raising awareness of their gender specific rights, promoting women’s political participation, and addressing all forms of injustices that affect women’s wellbeing; strengthen the capacity of 100 unregistered women’s groups to become registered under the NGOs Act 2016; and support 100 registered women’s groups in advocating, promoting and protecting civic space in Uganda. Project activities will incorporate actions in response to the Covid-19 crisis, as it impacts women, including gender-based violence as well as social and economic pressures.
Evaluation Date
July 2023
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Empowering Rural Communities in Bhutan through Mass Media

Mentoring as a model for capacity building has worked. It was found during the interviews that most of the trainees had learned techniques and applied new skills in reporting and engaging with audiences. After the trainings, the Mentors therefore continued to guide and teach the participants on subjects not covered during the trainings like techniques of editing and content packaging, self-censorship and other technical and editorial skills.
Project Partner
Journalists' Association of Bhutan
Project Description
The project aims to address low levels of media knowledge and social media awareness in Bhutan’s rural population, urban centric news media, and the lack of viable, private and free media coverage on rural issues. By training journalists to report on local issues in both mainstream and social media the project will encourage local communities to engage in active reporting on rural issues. Small grants will be awarded by a jury to recognize excellence in local journalism and to encourage continued meaningful contributions to free media in Bhutan by individual rural journalists.
Evaluation Date
December 2022
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Empowering Rural Communities in Bhutan through Mass Media

Both mentors and participants demonstrated that knowledge sharing works vertically and horizontally in- and outside the media organisations, mainly in four ways.
• One, most of the participants shared their knowledge and experience by training the co-workers;
• Two, they shared their knowledge with other media professionals through a variety of interactive as well as informal forums;
• Three, participants took opportunities to share their knowledge with students in media training institutes;
• Four, participants also shared their knowledge and experiences through a variety of media, most commonly by writing blogs, articles for professional journals.
Project Partner
Journalists' Association of Bhutan
Project Description
The project aims to address low levels of media knowledge and social media awareness in Bhutan’s rural population, urban centric news media, and the lack of viable, private and free media coverage on rural issues. By training journalists to report on local issues in both mainstream and social media the project will encourage local communities to engage in active reporting on rural issues. Small grants will be awarded by a jury to recognize excellence in local journalism and to encourage continued meaningful contributions to free media in Bhutan by individual rural journalists.
Evaluation Date
December 2022
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Citizen Empowerment for the Promotion of Good Governance and Participatory Democracy in Algeria

There is a particular need to involve citizens and CSOs in local development in Algeria. The framework, mechanisms, and tools for this participation are significantly dependent on experimentation, hence the relevance of funded initiatives which prioritise capacity building, experimentation, and learning.
Project Partner
Association de Solidarité et de Lutte contre la Pauvrete et l'exclusion
Project Description
This pilot project aims to promote good governance and sustainable local development, through democratic participation and dialogue among non-governmental organizations and public authorities in Bordj Boi Arreridj, Algeria. Campaigns will be implemented across four Wiliyah’s on communication, sensitization, training, and animation-consultation with production tools for decision-making support, to enhance citizen participation and action that meets the needs of Algerian civil society.
Evaluation Date
January 2022
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Support for Elections in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria

Training-of-trainers approaches are most effective when either the institution has a culture of internal learning, or where additional financial support is provided to support the internal roll-out.
Project Partner
Stakeholder Democracy Network
Project Description
Elections in Nigeria, and especially in its oil-producing Niger Delta states, have in the past been disputed and given rise to violence. One of these states, Bayelsa, is due to choose a new governor in 2020 in what is expected to be a hotly contested election. The project seeks to minimize the risk of dispute and help to ensure the election is free, fair, and credible. It will support the Independent Nigerian Electoral Commission to train staff engaged to oversee polling in at-risk areas in the procedures necessary to do so effectively. It will support the creation of a database to register party political agents in three areas, reducing the risk of unidentifiable persons engaging in illegal political activity. Activities will also include voter education across the target areas, aiming to reach 1,350 citizens in workshops and 170,000 via a public campaign, seeking to inform citizens on how to prevent votes from being stolen or manipulated.
Evaluation Date
August 2021
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Support for Elections in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria

There is an important distinction between a better understanding of an issue and a change in behaviour as a result. Just because a voter knows that vote buying is illegal, for example, does not mean they will refrain from doing it.
Project Partner
Stakeholder Democracy Network
Project Description
Elections in Nigeria, and especially in its oil-producing Niger Delta states, have in the past been disputed and given rise to violence. One of these states, Bayelsa, is due to choose a new governor in 2020 in what is expected to be a hotly contested election. The project seeks to minimize the risk of dispute and help to ensure the election is free, fair, and credible. It will support the Independent Nigerian Electoral Commission to train staff engaged to oversee polling in at-risk areas in the procedures necessary to do so effectively. It will support the creation of a database to register party political agents in three areas, reducing the risk of unidentifiable persons engaging in illegal political activity. Activities will also include voter education across the target areas, aiming to reach 1,350 citizens in workshops and 170,000 via a public campaign, seeking to inform citizens on how to prevent votes from being stolen or manipulated.
Evaluation Date
August 2021
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Strengthening CSO Engagement with Defence Institutions to Reduce Corruption and Strengthen Accountability in Mali

The project required a complex but clearly delineated division of labour and responsibilities between an external Civil Society Organisation and a country based Implementing Partner. This was well presented in the Project Document and was well managed during the course of the project, with the Implementing Partner providing local knowledge and relationships, and the Civil Society Organisation providing technical subject-matter expertise and links with the wider donor and international communities.
Project Partner
Transparency International UK
Project Description
The project was implemented by Transparency International – Defense and Security (as Implementing Agency) and the Cercle de Réflexion et d’Information pour la Consolidation de la Démocratie au Mali (CRI-2002, as Implementing Partner), from April 2018 to December 2019. The project benefited from a UNDEF grant of USD 187,000 and sought to reduce the risk of corruption in the Malian defense and security sector. It included a mix of capacity-building, advocacy and research work in order to build civil society’s ability to advocate for accountability and transparency in the defense sector, and to open a space for them to do so. Strengthening links between civil society and defense institutions and the democratic bodies charged with oversight of defense was an integral part of the approach.
Evaluation Date
February 2021
Country